Monday, December 27, 2010

Would you like more dirt with that dinner?




For the first time in recorded history, Alabama had a white Christmas! While I was super excited by this, Ruby took it as proof that all Christmas books and shows are correct. "Of course its snowing Mama, it's Christmas morning!"

Ruby was super excited by her red fire truck. I like how gender neutral Ruby is. She took her Tinkerbell fairy dolls and they fought fires all day long. Ruby really got into opening presents this year and it wasn't like last year where we spent two days opening gifts. Partly its because I reined my parents in, but it was also due to Ruby eagerly asking for another present to open. Santa also brought Ruby a basketball goal and a dump truck.


We hosted Christmas dinner which turned out to be exciting. When people showed up, the toilet upstairs had just overflowed, Picasso got out and I dropped a good portion of our dinner on the floor. Luckily, Jamey's family took everything in stride and we still had a great time.

After patiently waiting for the day after Christmas to ensure no one got it for me, I sent my dad to Best Buy to pick me up a Kinect. Dad overheard someone saying that it can be hard to connect the Kinect system with an older XBox so he naturally decided to get us a new XBox. We had a blast with Dance Central and Ruby showed she can really get her groove on.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Happy 13th Anniversary!



Jamey and I went to Atlanta the weekend of our 13th anniversary. We really enjoyed Woodfire Grill and Imperial Fez. For our actual anniversary, we met up with our anniversary buddies, Evan and Yvonne, at Veranda.

After being married for over a decade, I have a new theory on how to rate a healthy marriage. A marriage counselor only has to ask one question to immediately know how much work this couple will be. "What do you fight about?"

A typical marriage might have the following
money
how to raise kids
no time together

Here are some quotes of our top fights these days. All from my perspective but you can derive Jamey's point of view

"There are no magical ants that tesseract to baby formula powder if it is left on the counter between me making the bottle and cleaning up"

"If Prince is so superior to Michael Jackson, how come I would rather listen to actual doves cry then a single album of Prince's but you can put on any Michael Jackson album and have an instant party?"

"If there is a 10th circle of hell for people who open the dishwasher and only take what they immediately need out, I hope I do go there because those sound way more fun than people who don't."


13 years from now I hope we are still picking completely inane things to argue about. Of course, we'll still be arguing about Prince vs. Michael Jackson. Some marriage arguments are eternal.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

We Created Our Creators


Recently, we left Ruby with Jamey's mom for an evening of babysitting. Jamey's mom took the opportunity to tell the story of Baby Jesus. If she had warned me, I probably could have predicted how it would go. Then again, maybe not.

Juju: So God sent an angel to Mary that was so bright it hurt to look upon him.
Ruby: I don't like God.
Juju: Of course you like God. He made everything even you and Cora.
Ruby: Cora and I came from my mommy's belly.
Juju: But God created you there and the sky and the earth and EVERYTHING.
Ruby: No he didn't. Robots did.

I actually can guess where she got this idea. On a recent trip to McWayne center, Ruby was obsessed with watching the robots build a car. My mom commented "Robots are neat. They can make almost anything these days."

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Rainy Day


There are a few things in the deep south you don't mess with. OK. Make that lots of things including football, NASCAR, Republicans, and truck drivers who carry firearms. One thing on that list that I felt was pretty universal is tornadoes. No matter what your redneck status, we all bow before the tornado (when we are not getting out of our trailers to take some video to go along with the audio "It sounded like a freight train!")

Maybe Gadsden is not the tornado alley that Huntsville is, but Jamey lacks the proper respect. Take this morning.

Me: Do you hear that siren?
Jamey: Yes. Ruby get on your shoes. Let's go.
Me: Its a tornado warning
Jamey: So?
Me: For right here. Maybe you should wait a few minutes.
Jamey: Why?
Me: Why would you drive out now?
Jamey: Same reason I go to work every morning.
Me: An unfulfilled secret death wish that will leave you with no crying children and tons of sleep?
Jamey: Ruby, ask Mommy meteorologist if we can go now.

If my checking weather.com seems extreme to Jamey, he should have grown up in my family. My mother would have grabbed the baby from upstairs and rushed us all to the basement with a battery operated radio as soon as she heard the siren. In my mom's defense, our house in Huntsville got hit by a tornado 3 times in the time we lived there which seems to make tornadoes a statistic probability.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

And the Big Sister Award Goes To


Ruby has been absolutely great with Cora. She has an inner sweetness that must have come from some recessive gene. Last night she wanted to put on a puppet show for Cora (which Cora LOVED).

Also, look what she made in daycare this week when asked "What are you thankful for?"

Squirrels vs. Squirrels


For as long as I have known Jamey, he has left me notes with cartoon pictures of squirrels on them. The above is a good example although they are not usually in color. Recently, I was sitting with Jamey's mom on the porch when she noticed a squirrel carrying something. I looked and informed her it was another squirrel. Before you say, aww how cute, I feel obliged to point out that the other squirrel was the same size as the carrying squirrel and was in the mouth of the squirrel. There was nothing cute about it.

A quick search online revealed that I have not been the only one to witness this and that squirrels are in fact, cannibalistic at times and will eat other dead squirrels (sometimes that they killed in a fight). This certainly has changed my perception of squirrels a bit and added a hint of ominous to our fuzzy tailed friend in the backyard. Jamey commiserated the occasion by leaving me the following note yesterday morning.

Since this happened several weeks ago, it took me awhile to figure out the significance of the picture. I actually had decided that it represented the fact that a zombie could not have awakened me that morning because I was dead tired. Regardless, I might have nightmares.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

First Smile

Cora gave her first smiles today to Grandma. Now, I must admit that Cora has had one object of affection that received a smile late last week but I really couldn't count it as her first smile since it was directed at a, while not inanimate, certainly inarticulate object. The fan was, I am sure, very worthy of the attention.

Still no smiles for Mama so here is a random picture of her in a cute outfit from Leah's mom.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Dads vs. Moms


Sunday, October 31, 2010

Halloween





Kids are a great excuse to trick or treat. Cora took it easy and stayed home, but the rest of us had a blast walzting through the neighborhood on a surprisingly warm evening. Ruby did dain to wear her pink ghost costume made by Grandma and Yvonne.

I went as a more traditional ghost. I tried spraying my hair white but it looked more like an old lady costume that scary. My brothers family took on a disney theme. By far the best costume was my sister-in-law's mother. Lumiere! She makes costumes for plays so it would be pointless to try and outdo her.


That didn't stop Jamey from trying...

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Pajama Pirate!

Ruby decided quite a while ago that she wanted to be a pink ghost for Halloween. Right after we made her costume she changed her mind and decided she wanted to be Michael. So I assumed she didn't mean

or

or..but it would be awesome!


Ruby clarifies. "Mommy, the Michael in Peter Pan when he is fighting the pirates. That is what I want to be."
Mommy is a big fan of slightly obscure cinematic costumes so I got to work researching.

Hmm... why on earth does a little boy wear pink pajamas? Was that a thing in the 50s when Peter Pan was made? OK. I looked this up after this post. Pink used to be a boy color as a child version of the very masculine "red". Blue was actually a girl color denoting the Virgin Mary. Interesting.

A quick Google image search revealed that Ruby might be first toddler to request this costume. This morning she wore it for the first time for her Halloween parade at school. I think it turned out great. She's going to wear her pink ghost costume on Halloween proper (Which, I would like to point out, is not Saturday people!)

Monday, October 25, 2010

The supereior pumpkin patch


We went up to North Alabama and got to go to Tate farms, which I will from here on out refer to as the Superior. After Hayden, we thought we knew what a pumpkin patch was like, but the Superior was much nicer. Instead of a field with some small pumpkins sitting around on it, they had an honest to goodness pumpkin patch with pumpkins on the vine. The prices were super reasonable too. If you could find a way to get the 100lb pumpkin to your car it was only $20 or so.


It was a big treat getting to go with not only Aunt Kim and "the guys" and Taylor, but we also got to spend time with my sister from another mother, Cricket and her adorable son Kyle.



Now, if you know me well at all you probably know I have two weeknesses. American Chocolate Cookie Companty and fried pies. Tate farm upped the ante on the fried pies by having not only apple and peach but also chocolate! Ahhh...heaven.

After worrying about our kids in the hay maze, my sister and I discovered we were the ones that were lost.


Everyone enjoyed the playground.


Cora stayed with Uncle Terry and Papa. Every baby knows Uncle Terry is the best nap spot ever.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Big Sister

I downloaded some pics from my first three weeks of motherhood today. I'll have to do some catch up posts so here is one...

Ruby is such a fan of her little sister. She wants to see her first thing in the morning and first thing when she gets home. Ruby has already discovered one of the advantages of a sibling. I think Cora was 3 days old when Ruby messed up the pantry. When I asked how the pantry got so messy, Ruby said "Maybe Cora did it."

Ruby was very excited for us to take our first stroller ride together.

On Cora's one week birthday, we went to Veteran's park and had a picnic. Karen gave too realistic of an image...

so I had her redo it.

Uncle David enjoyed the benefits of bottle feeding while Jamey took me on a walk to help me get from looking 5 months pregnant to 4 months pregnant.

I will say that walking everyday since I got home has gotten me slimmed up quite a bit. I can't fit in my clothes yet, but I can fit in Jamey's and, frankly, that's probably more unbelievable.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Beach Trip!


My dad's family has a reunion every year in Florida. Before you get too jealous, I probably need to point out that it is at the family farm out in the country and not on the beach. However, my family does use it as a great excuse to stay at the beach in the off season as well. This year, I had planned not to go since it was so close to Cora's due date. However, since she came early I decided to tag along with my parents. Traveling with a newborn is easy, as long as you have a long reach.

Ruby is completely addicted to the beach. Jamey and I are convinced that there is magic in the state of Florida that allows Ruby to go with no sleep while we are there. Every morning, her and Papa went down to the beach and Ruby threw herself into every possible beach activity with great abandon.


At night, we enjoyed the stay in my parents timeshare. Ruby was in hog heaven since she got a fairy princess costume and could watch Robin Hood from her bunk bed.

My favorite part of the vacation was having mom and dad take Cora for two nights of uninterrupted sleep. Ahhhhh..... I didn't have any "baby blues" this time but I did have what I am going to call "baby reds". A slight irritation with everyone and everything. Kind of like how I feel about everything Jamey does on a regular basis ;-) A good night's sleep made me my happy self again.

We took a quick trip to my grandmother's house before the reunion. Her health prevents her from attending. It is always interesting to see what my Uncle Reggie, who takes care of my grandmother, has been doing in the world of home improvements. I think first I should point out that my uncle Reggie has a real love of Conan novels. Last time I went he had decorated the house in a stumps and shot his bows and arrows in the backyard. He closed off the kitchen and dining room and started cooking on the porch. He also setup a place to sleep in the living room behind the couch. Kind of like a fort. Well, as my husband pointed out, you don't even notice the paint by number Last Supper on the wall anymore. This year, he has hit upon his real talent which is one my Dad shares, woodworking. He added tall fences around most the property and decorated it with wooden cutouts of bulls, horses and my Dad's symbol Hairy Photon. The fence work is extremely well done, but my guess is the churchgoers next door are going to miss the shirtless bow and arrow demonstrations. I will continually kick myself for not taking pictures while I was there. Descriptions will never do it justice. Next year....

The reunion was great. Several years ago, my brother pointed out how boring the reunion must be for little kids. I suggested we do a haystack hunt for candy like they used to do in the NASA picnics. Mom and Dad immediately grabbed onto the idea and have done it every year since. Ruby loved it and asked to go back to the "hay place" for the rest of our stay. Cora won youngest attendee. In addition to worrying about any typical threats to a toddler (poison ivy, bees), the farm has one extra threat that my dad was sure to remind me of. Bears. Really?

It was great getting to spend some time with my Uncle Ricky at the timeshare. He and my Dad share some similarities, especially in love of technology, that I had never noticed. I also got to hear some stories I never knew. For example, I knew my Dad was born in a log cabin, but I didn't know the doctor set him on a shelf assuming he wasn't going to make it because he was so early and weighed only 4 pounds. Eventually, a nurse came by and said "this baby is still alive". Have I mentioned how much I love modern medicine?

We ended the beach trip with an evening at the tiki bar on the beach. Cora's First Tiki Bar. I have a "firsts" calendar with stickers, but I couldn't find that one.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Yellow and Orange - Must be Fall


Cora got some top of the line in home care for her jaundice a few days after arriving home from the hospital. A nurse brought a jaundice light that fit inside our bassinet perfectly. The bassinet was handmade by my dad when my mom was pregnant with my older sister. Since then all the kids and grandkids have slept in it. Since most of our family has big babies it usually only fits them for a week or two. Cora is small for our family and will get to use it awhile.

While we were waiting on the jaundace lamp to show up, mom and I got out the bassinet and set Cora on the screened in porch in it. She wiggled around and found the spindles with her legs. She gave a huge sigh of happiness and went to sleep. Must of reminded her of mommy's ribs. I really like that newborns don't move aorund. Unfortunately, Cora did not get that memo. She can roll to her side, lift her head and scoot around all at a few days old.

The jaundice light has a blue jacket the baby sits in. First thing Ruby did when she saw it was run inside. When she came out, she had put on a jacket to match her sister.


Seeing as how my recovery was going so well, I decided to let my mom watch Cora and Jamey and I could take Ruby to a birthday party at a pumpkin patch. What I didn't count on was just how bumpy a hayride can be. I don't have a picture of my face on the hayride but I'm guessing it was a sight to behold. Still, Ruby had a great time and it was a perfect place to entertain toddlers.

Friday, October 1, 2010

Sweet Home Alabama


Jamey and I were more than ready to go home on Tuesday morning. We packed up and waited for the all clear from my doctor and Cora's pediatrician. My doc came by early and said I was good to go. Unfortunately, we waited and waited for Cora's. Aside from being compatible in every other way, Jamey and I were not meant to reproduce by nature I suppose. Due to my O+ blood and his A+, we like to give our babies jaundice and Cora was no exception. Luckily, hers is not as severe as Ruby's so we were sent home with instructions to test again the next day. Around 2 PM we got home. Cora continues to excel at sleeping.

Allison, in a pretty standard outfit for her, got to meet Cora that night.

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Hospital Day 2


Cora's name has been a source of discussion in the Taylor household since we found out we were having a girl. Jamey wanted to name her after his great grandmother Zeola. I was not the biggest fan although I like Zee. We listed all the names in the family tree and ranked them. We met at Cora. We also discussed how much I like boy names for girls and Jamey suggested Charley. I took weeks of my pregnancy calling my stomach Zee, Charley or Cora depending on my mood. I have to admit for while there Charley was the clear winner. Then I realized my niece's new dog is named Charlie and I read three books in a row with a dog name Charlie. Weird isn't it? I decided that was a sign either in the pro or minus. I looked into the future a bit

My daughter: How did you pick the name Charley
Me: I saw/read about four dogs named Charley and just couldn't resist.
My daughter: My therapy bills are going to be huge.

OK. So not Charley. Now Cora was still very appealing. It could be cute or grown up and it was unusual. Also it has good meanings "heart" or "maiden". I remember being so irked to realize my name meant "of the resurrection". What does that even mean, really? Zeola, let's call her Zee, was also unusual but had no meaning and everyone I mentioned it to said "what? Viola?" and I had to repeat it. I got tired of that quickly, so how would Zeola feel?

My daughter: I hate my name. I always have to repeat it and then tell people how to spell it.
Me: Well, your father really liked it and since he was having a hard time getting excited at the thought of two kids, I figured I should throw him a bone.
My daughter: My therapy bills are going to be huge.

OK. So I went dictator on Jamey and declared the winner to be Cora. I told him, with some slight trepidation, that he could pick the middle name. Jamey enlisted Ruby's help and came up with several likely candidates including Key, Pine cone and Aurora.

Now, here we sit in the hospital and a woman comes in with the birth certificate. I tell Jamey's it's time and the lady says "oh no, this is just the baby book certificate. You can still think about it." Jamey happily puts off the decision until the real certificate comes in later that morning. As he's filling it out, he starts laughing. Do you think New York has the same sample occupations?

He hands back the paperwork which I intercept and am happy to see Zee as the middle name. I love it. A nod to the family tree, but uniquely her own.

Today, our visitors are my mom, dad and Ruby for the most part. Uncle David dropped by since he was on a business trip the day before. He brings us a great lunch and makes me laugh so much with his stories that I have to take a Perkeset when he leaves.

Yvonne and Evan continue in being way too good of friends by bringing us sushi, wine and bubble teas with caffeine. It's like a smörgåsbord of pregnancy no-nos and I eat to my heart's content.

Cora is such a perfect baby that Jamey and I spend most the day reading. This may be the most relaxing vacation we've had in a while. Despite that, we send Cora to the nursery for the night and get a good 6 hours sleep. Ahhhh, won't see that again any time soon.